Stevie Blaze - Lillian Axe
Stevie Blaze - Lillian Axe
It is not 1988 anymore and Lillian Axe is aware of that. They have issued what may be their darkest and most diverse album to date in the form of Deep Red Shadows. Lillian Axe may not be the same band per se that broke out onto the scene in 1987 but they certainly are a better band. Deep Red Shadows is an incredible display of modern hard rock with that patented Lillian Axe sound. I had an opportunity to talk with Stevie Blaze, who is the creative force behind Lillian Axe, a few days after the Louisiana shows.
An interview with Stevie Blaze by Susan Hewitt
METAL EXILES: There are many things going on right now for Lillian Axe with your new singer, your new label as well as your new album, but let’s start with the new album. Where did the concept for Deep Red Shadows come from?
Steve Blaze: When we first started off, it was originally going to be just a 4-song EP to kind of introduce the label and put something out there a little different. You know Eric (Morris) and I did this vampire movie, this low-budget movie and spent a whole year pre-production on a slightly more expensive movie that was going to be produced about five years ago, and then Hurricane Katrina hit and it destroyed everything that we had worked on to get the new movie out. So we have had this kind of vampire background with these two movies. Also I have always been a fan of dark, gothic music and just very melodic, kind of melancholy, heavy music, so I thought it would be cool to produce it. You know, I had some songs in my head that were thematically based around vampires, romanticism, immortality and whatnot. It kind of all blended together. So we are going to do this heavy, dark, vampire-themed EP and then we started saying well, let’s put a bonus track on here. Before long, we’re putting four bonus tracks and I’m writing an instrumental, and they’re all thematically running around the same red line all the way through everything. All the pieces were complimentary to each other and a four-song EP turns into a 48-minute long play record. So, at that point, we just said this is just going to be a unique kind of specialty album, and when you look at it conceptually and as one piece of art, it really flows well together.
METAL EXILES: One of my personal favorites of the new songs is The Quenching of Human Life and I have to ask you about the lyrics in that song. It has a line in there that reads, “As I rise to meet my maker with a pressure cooker in my mouth, I taste the quenching of human life.” What exactly does that mean?
Steve Blaze: The whole part about the pressure cooker in my mouth and the alligator in my mouth, that’s just imagery. You know, I am the type of person that when things emotionally get to me, I have a very hard time just keeping them inside. I have a long fuse, but when the fuse is up then I explode. The image of having all of these things that I want to say, the rants and raves all bottled up inside of my head and the line is “as I go to meet my maker with a pressure cooker in my mouth,” it’s like, when I meet God I have so much that I want to say. Also there is so much I want to understand and learn and rant and rave about. It’s just an imagery of all of these things that you build up during your life and then you finally die that’s when you have your opportunity to hopefully know and understand everything and to speak your piece as well. Also it’s just an imagery for pressure building up inside one’s person and finally having the opportunity to let it all out without having to worry about being politically correct or concerned about someone else not understanding you.
METAL EXILES: The four acoustic songs, were they included just because they fit in with the concept or was there some other basis for selecting those?
Steve Blaze: Well, there were some different reasons. Nobody Knows and The Day I Met You were put on there because they were a couple of fan favorites. You know, Nobody Knows has always been the sing-a-long, a fan favorite, and then The Day I Met You, I always felt that that song could’ve been an immense hit if given the proper awareness and exposure to the world, and it fit and so it’s our way of allowing it to be re-heard. Then we started looking at how it really did fit in with the whole romanticism theme and then at that point with six songs we decided “let’s do a couple of more because these really sound good”. Because we have been known to do a lot of acoustic stuff and, although we had these ballads on the last record they were heavier, they were filled with heavy guitars. I think a great song transcends the approach. If it’s a great song, no matter what type of instrumentation or approach you use, it should stand out and be unique and I think the way that we recorded these songs is just another way to color those songs - another way to appreciate them and understand them. Also they did conceptually fit with what we were originally starting out toward, so it kind of took on its own life as we were taking them to tape. All of the songs melded together very well. You know, it is definitely a unique thing because you have people that are going to complain no matter what you do. Some people are going to say “we wanted a whole brand new record of all brand new stuff.” People that understand it and get it, they love it. We look at it like, it was going to be an EP, we’re giving you some bonus tracks, you should appreciate this. I am really happy with the way it came out. I think that it sounds very good. It’s a very emotional record, it is what it is.
METAL EXILES: It seems like the last three albums have gotten progressively darker. How much impact has the hiatus of your side-project Near Life Experience had on the new material?
Steve Blaze: If you go back and start looking at like some of the first records, you will see that we have always had elements of that kind of darker, more brooding element with Waiting in the Dark and Hard Luck and then moving on into Ghost, World Stopped Turning, Letters in the Rain. With the release of Psychoschizophrenia, it really kind of manifest itself on a different level. I have always been a huge fan of music that is emotional, majestic with almost touches of melancholy to it. I love lullabies and I love sad music and it’s not a depressing feeling, it’s kind of a beautiful sadness. I don’t think you can experience real happiness unless you understand melancholy. And I think a lot of people don’t understand where I’m coming from and don’t understand me and they look at things a little differently, like they say dark, but it’s not. That’s just the only word anybody can ever seem to come up with because when I start to even try to describe what I’m feeling, it’s hard to describe. It’s not dark in an evil-type way, it’s dark in a “going into the recesses of your mind and your feelings that we don’t understand kind of way”. Going into the unknown of your brain. Going into places that people do not normally even think about or want to go into. You know, going into elements of being a human being, elements of being alive that aren’t consistent with a 9-to-5, go to work, hang around, come home, have some beer, watch TV, go to bed, type of lifestyle. Not the things that we all have to go through and we all understand, but the things that touch deep parts of my emotion. I do not find it necessary for me to write party songs. I do not party. I am not a drinker nor do I go hang out in clubs. Man, I’m about having a great life and succeeding and exceeding all expectations of my life. I’m very observant of things around me. I’m very emotionally attached to things around me, and, you know, I try to write and musically portray things that I want to move people the way that they move me.
METAL EXILES: In my own mind, I can relate several of your songs to things that are happening in the world, like disasters, things like Hurricane Katrina, is that intended? Do you draw any of your inspiration from world events or does it all come from personal experience?
Steve Blaze: I draw from things going on around me, but usually, it’s not as event specific as maybe some people write about. Like, in other words, if I’m writing about how man treats each other and selfishness and greed, it’s not designed over what happened, you know, like let’s say with Katrina or a specific world event. It’s usually more of kind of looking back at how man treats himself on all of these different occasions, not just one specific one. There are many ways that I sit around and watch how man perpetually does things to hurt himself - all in trying to get that one car length ahead of you or from silliness to people who drive poorly in traffic not considering that they could kill somebody else in a car wreck, all the way up to how the government could care less about the individual. All those same types of ways that man treats himself are evident in a daily situation like how people are in traffic all the way down to how Hitler was with the Jews. I mean, it’s the same type of greed on many different levels. Those kinds of things aggravate me, they upset me, and I write about it. It’s not always about just the awareness, but it’s also about the awareness of the light at the end of the tunnel and the silver lining as well. I think if I can point these things out to some people and get to them where they start feeling this kind of universal awareness of, “hey, you know what, we really are screwing ourselves here.” Then with that maybe people will start to sit back and make observations and maybe change their own lives a little bit and try to make things better. Even in a small way. You know, it’s very difficult, how do we improve the world and the planet? One little step at a time, man, from holding a door for somebody, saying hello to somebody, for helping somebody out. One piece at a time, that’s how you do it. That’s why it has a snowball effect. You do one good thing for somebody and you never know, you could have just saved a life, you could have saved the life of somebody that’s going to turn out to be the person that invents the cure for cancer. You never know. That’s why each individual’s life, journey and trip has got to be very focused. You never know how many things your individual participation on this planet is going to help mold the future of the human race. You just never know. So, I’m hoping that with observation and awareness people can just think a little deeper than nothing but a good time. Now I’m not like some brooding guy that lives in the basement. I’m about as happy, funny and happy-go-lucky as everybody else is, but when it comes to my music and what I can do with the music, and what I want to do, and the power and majesty of this style of music, I want to do something important with it. I want to do something that moves people. Not just go out there and try to give somebody ten seconds of pleasure and then the songs over and they couldn’t tell you what the hell they really even listened to. I want things that are going to stay with them for the rest of their lives.
METAL EXILES: Let’s talk about Derrick’s departure for a minute. How did Derrick’s departure come about?
Steve Blaze: Derrick just informed us out of the blue that he did not want to do the extensive touring, that he just wanted to do the weekend thing, and that’s just unable to be done. We’re an international recording band, we’re going to tour. We have many opportunities to go and do things all over the world, maybe weeks or months at a time. We can’t be bound down to being weekend warriors. That doesn’t work when you’re building a career. So, we gave him plenty of opportunity to think about it and made sure that that’s what he wanted to do, and he decided that’s what he wanted. He still did the record, still did a great job, but decided he was sticking to his guns and that’s what he wanted to do and so obviously we had to honor that. So here we are. He finished out what he said he would do and allowed us to find a new singer and move forward. There’s no hard feelings, love the guy to death, it was just time to move on.
METAL EXILES: Is the timing of his departure going to have any negative impact?
Steve Blaze: There is never a good time. I wish maybe we would’ve known about it before we started doing the record, that way we wouldn’t have the unusual scenario of him singing and a brand new singer coming in right when the record is released. That is a bit odd. I would have liked for maybe, even though he did a wonderful job, timing wise, it would have been better if we’d been able to put Ronny on this record. But things happen for a reason. I do not really, I question them, but I know God’s got a plan. He knows what he’s doing with me and I’m just going with it. Derrick did a great job on the record and if that’s the way it’s meant to be, that’s fine. Timing is never good on these things.
METAL EXILES: How is the transition from Derrick to Ronny going to compare to the transition from Ron Taylor to Derrick?
Steve Blaze: I think it’s going to be, you know, both situations are going to be a little bit of culture shock for the fans. Because, I mean let’s face it, music fans like to be comfortable, they don’t like change. You know, that is why great bands like AC/DC are still doing the same signature stuff and people love ‘em to death. They like that fix. This band, Lillian Axe, some guy did a review the other day and said this band cannot be categorized. We just don’t fit anywhere. It’s kind of strange, but we’ve got this very colorful history. We’ve always gone through things - all of the different things. It’s a great journey, but we continue to put out the best music we can, and we keep it going and we’re not going to stop. I think this is a brand-new page in the history of the band on many different levels. If anything, it will be a little bit more culture shock probably for the band than anybody because Ronny is such a different kind of person as well as a different type of singer. You know, he has different approaches to things. But it’s refreshing and it’s something we need, and I think a lot of people might be surprised in a very, very good way. I mean, our first rehearsal with him last night sounded amazing. So, we’re very, very excited about where we’re going to be going.
METAL EXILES: What about the concerns of fans who are not sure how Ronny will perform the classic material?
Steve Blaze: I mean, look, first of all, I love our fans. I appreciate the concern. They have got to have some trust in me. I know what I’m doing. You know, how many people when we first switched over fans said “oh my God, not going to be the same, not going to be the same”, the same people that are saying, “oh no, Ronny Munroe, it’s just not going to be like Derrick.” I mean, the music, the style, the signature sound and elements are always going to be there as long as I am in this band. They will be there. We will always be a band that just prides their self on excellence and we will never ever have a person in this band that doesn’t fit like a glove, that isn’t a key, crucial element and that’s going to detract from what this band is all about. If anything, I feel like we get better and better with every incarnation. Every time we go through this it makes us stronger and we find stronger people. That’s how I look at it. I’m not going to say better or this one’s better than that or whatnot. Because there is no such term as better in anything. You know, you can’t say anybody is better than anybody else in anything. I can tell you that I hope the fans, if they’re true fans, they’re going to be there for us. He may not sing exactly like Ron Taylor in tonality, but he’s an incredible singer, maybe one of the best singers on the planet, and he’s amazing. And he’s going to sound great. Now is it going to sound exactly like Ron and Derrick? Let’s face it, Ron and Derrick were very, tonality wise, very similar to each other. A lot of times you couldn’t tell who it was. I’ll guarantee you that it will be a lot more distinct change with Ronny singing, but he’s still singing the same words, the same melody and he’s got an incredible voice. So it’s going be great and we’re going to be doing new records with Ronny. I think his stage presence, his performance, the way he sings, the strength of his voice, is going to all just totally compliment all of the back catalog. You know, there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m not laying over and dying because I lose a band member. I mean, it’s a drag, it’s a shame and whatnot, but I’m just not going to ever do that. I see too many people that just love this band too much, that, you know, why would I even think about stopping my love and my career because somebody doesn’t want me to have a new singer. I mean, it’s preposterous, it’s not ever going to happen.
METAL EXILES: Well, I, for one, am glad to hear that. In the past, you’ve written all of the material for the band. How much creative input is Ronny going to have?
Steve Blaze: Well, I think Ronny is going to be pretty strongly involved in this, especially lyrically because he has a lot of lyrics. I respect his writing and his ability and his desire to get involved in it. At the same token, he understands the history of the writing and the band. With that mutual . . . we’re going to be working together a lot on different things. So, that’s going to be nice to be able to collaborate because I never really have had that to a strong degree before. I had it minimally with Ron, but not that much. I think there’s going to be more closeness between Ronny and myself than I have had with other singers in the past.
METAL EXILES: Congratulations on your induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Tell me what that means to you.
Steve Blaze: Actually that is one of the most important moments of your career, that’s definitely one of the top five, if not the top. Just the fact that we’re recognized for our longevity and the things that we’ve accomplished. It can never be taken away from us. It’s done, it’s in the history books. We’re the first hard rock band to get inducted and we’re alongside some major musical legends. It’s just kind of vindication for all of the BS that you put up with every day in this business. There’s just so many different elements of things you have to go through, people don’t realize it - emotional obstacles, physical obstacles, just to be able to continue to be a recording artist over the years. It’s an emotional roller coaster. But when something like that happens and you realize, you know what, it’s stamped in time. Not going to change, you’re there, you’ve achieved it. It’s just never, ever going to be taken away from you. It’s kind of one those things, okay, I can die now, you know. It’s a really big deal for me. There is so many people that had a big hand and part in us just being around for so many years from the managers, the crew members, to my family members and people in the business. The fans of the band had a big part in it as well. There is just so many different elements of it and you kind of feel like you just want to give everybody a copy of the award, you know.
METAL EXILES: Well, it certainly is a huge accomplishment. Let’s talk about the new record label for a second. Deep Red Shadows is the first release on Love & War Records. How did that label come about?
Steve Blaze: That came about, you know, obviously going through six labels in the past, we have been through the best and the worst of the business and major labels to independent labels and just learned so many different levels of what to do and what not to do. I was fortunate enough to get involved with an individual who had capital and was a big fan of the band that wanted to fund the new label. So we partnered with Megaforce records and we secured Sony for distribution, Sony Red to be exact, and we put the team together. We were able to employ people that had worked with us on other levels in the past and that were not only employees in the band but were kind of family and believed in us and were our friends as well. So it worked out really well to be able to employ the right people and not be subject to whoever some label said was going to be working your album for you. It was a great set up for the record. Now we just have to get out there and battle the elements of the industry, you know, how screwed up the music industry is right now.
METAL EXILES: Let me go back to NLE for a minute. Are there any plans for the future?
Steve Blaze: We have an album that’s pretty much already recorded, waiting on Rob Hovey to go in there and redo his drums. We may go in and re-record a bunch of the stuff, but we’ve got a whole bunch of really good songs that are just kind of sitting there, and we’re hoping that maybe we can do it from scratch and maybe possibly release the new album on the label maybe this year sometime.
METAL EXILES: And what does Lillian Axe have in store in the coming months?
Steve Blaze: Well, we’re going to New York this weekend to play B.B. King’s [on Monday August 9th]. It will be Ronny’s debut and we’re doing a lot of press. We’re doing Eddie Trunk’s XM Radio show and a lot of interviews, and meet the New York press and all of the people from Sony and Megaforce, all of the people that we’re working with. And then our agent is putting a tour together for September for us and, up until yesterday, we were going out with Enuff Z’Nuff and do a co-headlining tour, but our agent called and said that something happened and they had broken up yesterday. So now we’re trying to find another band to partner with. It’s crazy out there, man, I tell you. We’ve got to get out there and tour and support this record and keep pushing it and do what we need to do. In the meantime, I’ve started to write the next album. Ronny and I were discussing it last night. We’ve got lots of ideas already and we’re going to get together and start talking about those and putting some new stuff together.
METAL EXILES: When do you think you’ll start on the new album?
Steve Blaze: I would like to start on the new record maybe February or something like that. February or March. Take our time. We always seem to be under the gun. You know, we set up release dates ahead of time and then things change. We’re just always rushed. I’d like to go and start recording and then we’ll get the release date so we’re close to finishing and figure out when we’re going to have it done and not be rushed. I’m hoping that maybe we can have a release for next summer if we’re lucky.
METAL EXILES: Okay, I just have one more random question. I understand you also have a songwriting program, how are things going with that?
Steve Blaze: Well, this thing was set up because I run into a lot of people that they’re not . . ., being a songwriter is not only something I think is a born skill, but it’s also something that takes lots and lots of hard work and trial and error and it’s a growth thing. Because to be a good songwriter you also have to be proficient at some form of instrument to be able to write, understand chord changes and melodies and whatnot and have the knack to be able to write lyrics that move people, put them together, do arrangements. And these kind of things, you know, 95 percent of the people on the planet don’t have those particular skill sets. So, I started thinking about what about people that have written lyrics or just ideas for somebody they care about? Wouldn’t it be really cool if they could write a song? I want to write a song for my wife and I don’t have any musical talent, but I can write some words or I think I’m good at lyrics or I can’t write lyrics, but I can tell you about my wife and I’d like to have a song written for her. So I said I’ll come up with a program that for a fee I work with them and take their ideas. They will tell me what type of voice they want, male or female, give me some ideas of what type of instrumentation they want, what songs do you like that you would like for this to be in the same kind of feel as and I work with them. I will take their lyrics and write, arrange and record their own song that they can have to dedicate to whoever they want. And what happens is, not only do we do that, but they have half ownership of the song with me and half the publishing if it ever gets published by an act and makes some money, we split it 50-50. So they have ownership of the song that belongs to them and it’s written and dedicated for a loved one. So that’s the whole idea behind it.
If you’ve never seen Lillian Axe live, do yourself a favor and be sure to check them out on their upcoming tour.
www.lillianaxe.com
http://www.loveandwarrecordsllc.com
http://www.createyoursongwithsteveblaze.com
BUY DEEP RED SHADOWS!!
An interview with Stevie Blaze by Susan Hewitt
METAL EXILES: There are many things going on right now for Lillian Axe with your new singer, your new label as well as your new album, but let’s start with the new album. Where did the concept for Deep Red Shadows come from?
Steve Blaze: When we first started off, it was originally going to be just a 4-song EP to kind of introduce the label and put something out there a little different. You know Eric (Morris) and I did this vampire movie, this low-budget movie and spent a whole year pre-production on a slightly more expensive movie that was going to be produced about five years ago, and then Hurricane Katrina hit and it destroyed everything that we had worked on to get the new movie out. So we have had this kind of vampire background with these two movies. Also I have always been a fan of dark, gothic music and just very melodic, kind of melancholy, heavy music, so I thought it would be cool to produce it. You know, I had some songs in my head that were thematically based around vampires, romanticism, immortality and whatnot. It kind of all blended together. So we are going to do this heavy, dark, vampire-themed EP and then we started saying well, let’s put a bonus track on here. Before long, we’re putting four bonus tracks and I’m writing an instrumental, and they’re all thematically running around the same red line all the way through everything. All the pieces were complimentary to each other and a four-song EP turns into a 48-minute long play record. So, at that point, we just said this is just going to be a unique kind of specialty album, and when you look at it conceptually and as one piece of art, it really flows well together.
METAL EXILES: One of my personal favorites of the new songs is The Quenching of Human Life and I have to ask you about the lyrics in that song. It has a line in there that reads, “As I rise to meet my maker with a pressure cooker in my mouth, I taste the quenching of human life.” What exactly does that mean?
Steve Blaze: The whole part about the pressure cooker in my mouth and the alligator in my mouth, that’s just imagery. You know, I am the type of person that when things emotionally get to me, I have a very hard time just keeping them inside. I have a long fuse, but when the fuse is up then I explode. The image of having all of these things that I want to say, the rants and raves all bottled up inside of my head and the line is “as I go to meet my maker with a pressure cooker in my mouth,” it’s like, when I meet God I have so much that I want to say. Also there is so much I want to understand and learn and rant and rave about. It’s just an imagery of all of these things that you build up during your life and then you finally die that’s when you have your opportunity to hopefully know and understand everything and to speak your piece as well. Also it’s just an imagery for pressure building up inside one’s person and finally having the opportunity to let it all out without having to worry about being politically correct or concerned about someone else not understanding you.
METAL EXILES: The four acoustic songs, were they included just because they fit in with the concept or was there some other basis for selecting those?
Steve Blaze: Well, there were some different reasons. Nobody Knows and The Day I Met You were put on there because they were a couple of fan favorites. You know, Nobody Knows has always been the sing-a-long, a fan favorite, and then The Day I Met You, I always felt that that song could’ve been an immense hit if given the proper awareness and exposure to the world, and it fit and so it’s our way of allowing it to be re-heard. Then we started looking at how it really did fit in with the whole romanticism theme and then at that point with six songs we decided “let’s do a couple of more because these really sound good”. Because we have been known to do a lot of acoustic stuff and, although we had these ballads on the last record they were heavier, they were filled with heavy guitars. I think a great song transcends the approach. If it’s a great song, no matter what type of instrumentation or approach you use, it should stand out and be unique and I think the way that we recorded these songs is just another way to color those songs - another way to appreciate them and understand them. Also they did conceptually fit with what we were originally starting out toward, so it kind of took on its own life as we were taking them to tape. All of the songs melded together very well. You know, it is definitely a unique thing because you have people that are going to complain no matter what you do. Some people are going to say “we wanted a whole brand new record of all brand new stuff.” People that understand it and get it, they love it. We look at it like, it was going to be an EP, we’re giving you some bonus tracks, you should appreciate this. I am really happy with the way it came out. I think that it sounds very good. It’s a very emotional record, it is what it is.
METAL EXILES: It seems like the last three albums have gotten progressively darker. How much impact has the hiatus of your side-project Near Life Experience had on the new material?
Steve Blaze: If you go back and start looking at like some of the first records, you will see that we have always had elements of that kind of darker, more brooding element with Waiting in the Dark and Hard Luck and then moving on into Ghost, World Stopped Turning, Letters in the Rain. With the release of Psychoschizophrenia, it really kind of manifest itself on a different level. I have always been a huge fan of music that is emotional, majestic with almost touches of melancholy to it. I love lullabies and I love sad music and it’s not a depressing feeling, it’s kind of a beautiful sadness. I don’t think you can experience real happiness unless you understand melancholy. And I think a lot of people don’t understand where I’m coming from and don’t understand me and they look at things a little differently, like they say dark, but it’s not. That’s just the only word anybody can ever seem to come up with because when I start to even try to describe what I’m feeling, it’s hard to describe. It’s not dark in an evil-type way, it’s dark in a “going into the recesses of your mind and your feelings that we don’t understand kind of way”. Going into the unknown of your brain. Going into places that people do not normally even think about or want to go into. You know, going into elements of being a human being, elements of being alive that aren’t consistent with a 9-to-5, go to work, hang around, come home, have some beer, watch TV, go to bed, type of lifestyle. Not the things that we all have to go through and we all understand, but the things that touch deep parts of my emotion. I do not find it necessary for me to write party songs. I do not party. I am not a drinker nor do I go hang out in clubs. Man, I’m about having a great life and succeeding and exceeding all expectations of my life. I’m very observant of things around me. I’m very emotionally attached to things around me, and, you know, I try to write and musically portray things that I want to move people the way that they move me.
METAL EXILES: In my own mind, I can relate several of your songs to things that are happening in the world, like disasters, things like Hurricane Katrina, is that intended? Do you draw any of your inspiration from world events or does it all come from personal experience?
Steve Blaze: I draw from things going on around me, but usually, it’s not as event specific as maybe some people write about. Like, in other words, if I’m writing about how man treats each other and selfishness and greed, it’s not designed over what happened, you know, like let’s say with Katrina or a specific world event. It’s usually more of kind of looking back at how man treats himself on all of these different occasions, not just one specific one. There are many ways that I sit around and watch how man perpetually does things to hurt himself - all in trying to get that one car length ahead of you or from silliness to people who drive poorly in traffic not considering that they could kill somebody else in a car wreck, all the way up to how the government could care less about the individual. All those same types of ways that man treats himself are evident in a daily situation like how people are in traffic all the way down to how Hitler was with the Jews. I mean, it’s the same type of greed on many different levels. Those kinds of things aggravate me, they upset me, and I write about it. It’s not always about just the awareness, but it’s also about the awareness of the light at the end of the tunnel and the silver lining as well. I think if I can point these things out to some people and get to them where they start feeling this kind of universal awareness of, “hey, you know what, we really are screwing ourselves here.” Then with that maybe people will start to sit back and make observations and maybe change their own lives a little bit and try to make things better. Even in a small way. You know, it’s very difficult, how do we improve the world and the planet? One little step at a time, man, from holding a door for somebody, saying hello to somebody, for helping somebody out. One piece at a time, that’s how you do it. That’s why it has a snowball effect. You do one good thing for somebody and you never know, you could have just saved a life, you could have saved the life of somebody that’s going to turn out to be the person that invents the cure for cancer. You never know. That’s why each individual’s life, journey and trip has got to be very focused. You never know how many things your individual participation on this planet is going to help mold the future of the human race. You just never know. So, I’m hoping that with observation and awareness people can just think a little deeper than nothing but a good time. Now I’m not like some brooding guy that lives in the basement. I’m about as happy, funny and happy-go-lucky as everybody else is, but when it comes to my music and what I can do with the music, and what I want to do, and the power and majesty of this style of music, I want to do something important with it. I want to do something that moves people. Not just go out there and try to give somebody ten seconds of pleasure and then the songs over and they couldn’t tell you what the hell they really even listened to. I want things that are going to stay with them for the rest of their lives.
METAL EXILES: Let’s talk about Derrick’s departure for a minute. How did Derrick’s departure come about?
Steve Blaze: Derrick just informed us out of the blue that he did not want to do the extensive touring, that he just wanted to do the weekend thing, and that’s just unable to be done. We’re an international recording band, we’re going to tour. We have many opportunities to go and do things all over the world, maybe weeks or months at a time. We can’t be bound down to being weekend warriors. That doesn’t work when you’re building a career. So, we gave him plenty of opportunity to think about it and made sure that that’s what he wanted to do, and he decided that’s what he wanted. He still did the record, still did a great job, but decided he was sticking to his guns and that’s what he wanted to do and so obviously we had to honor that. So here we are. He finished out what he said he would do and allowed us to find a new singer and move forward. There’s no hard feelings, love the guy to death, it was just time to move on.
METAL EXILES: Is the timing of his departure going to have any negative impact?
Steve Blaze: There is never a good time. I wish maybe we would’ve known about it before we started doing the record, that way we wouldn’t have the unusual scenario of him singing and a brand new singer coming in right when the record is released. That is a bit odd. I would have liked for maybe, even though he did a wonderful job, timing wise, it would have been better if we’d been able to put Ronny on this record. But things happen for a reason. I do not really, I question them, but I know God’s got a plan. He knows what he’s doing with me and I’m just going with it. Derrick did a great job on the record and if that’s the way it’s meant to be, that’s fine. Timing is never good on these things.
METAL EXILES: How is the transition from Derrick to Ronny going to compare to the transition from Ron Taylor to Derrick?
Steve Blaze: I think it’s going to be, you know, both situations are going to be a little bit of culture shock for the fans. Because, I mean let’s face it, music fans like to be comfortable, they don’t like change. You know, that is why great bands like AC/DC are still doing the same signature stuff and people love ‘em to death. They like that fix. This band, Lillian Axe, some guy did a review the other day and said this band cannot be categorized. We just don’t fit anywhere. It’s kind of strange, but we’ve got this very colorful history. We’ve always gone through things - all of the different things. It’s a great journey, but we continue to put out the best music we can, and we keep it going and we’re not going to stop. I think this is a brand-new page in the history of the band on many different levels. If anything, it will be a little bit more culture shock probably for the band than anybody because Ronny is such a different kind of person as well as a different type of singer. You know, he has different approaches to things. But it’s refreshing and it’s something we need, and I think a lot of people might be surprised in a very, very good way. I mean, our first rehearsal with him last night sounded amazing. So, we’re very, very excited about where we’re going to be going.
METAL EXILES: What about the concerns of fans who are not sure how Ronny will perform the classic material?
Steve Blaze: I mean, look, first of all, I love our fans. I appreciate the concern. They have got to have some trust in me. I know what I’m doing. You know, how many people when we first switched over fans said “oh my God, not going to be the same, not going to be the same”, the same people that are saying, “oh no, Ronny Munroe, it’s just not going to be like Derrick.” I mean, the music, the style, the signature sound and elements are always going to be there as long as I am in this band. They will be there. We will always be a band that just prides their self on excellence and we will never ever have a person in this band that doesn’t fit like a glove, that isn’t a key, crucial element and that’s going to detract from what this band is all about. If anything, I feel like we get better and better with every incarnation. Every time we go through this it makes us stronger and we find stronger people. That’s how I look at it. I’m not going to say better or this one’s better than that or whatnot. Because there is no such term as better in anything. You know, you can’t say anybody is better than anybody else in anything. I can tell you that I hope the fans, if they’re true fans, they’re going to be there for us. He may not sing exactly like Ron Taylor in tonality, but he’s an incredible singer, maybe one of the best singers on the planet, and he’s amazing. And he’s going to sound great. Now is it going to sound exactly like Ron and Derrick? Let’s face it, Ron and Derrick were very, tonality wise, very similar to each other. A lot of times you couldn’t tell who it was. I’ll guarantee you that it will be a lot more distinct change with Ronny singing, but he’s still singing the same words, the same melody and he’s got an incredible voice. So it’s going be great and we’re going to be doing new records with Ronny. I think his stage presence, his performance, the way he sings, the strength of his voice, is going to all just totally compliment all of the back catalog. You know, there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m not laying over and dying because I lose a band member. I mean, it’s a drag, it’s a shame and whatnot, but I’m just not going to ever do that. I see too many people that just love this band too much, that, you know, why would I even think about stopping my love and my career because somebody doesn’t want me to have a new singer. I mean, it’s preposterous, it’s not ever going to happen.
METAL EXILES: Well, I, for one, am glad to hear that. In the past, you’ve written all of the material for the band. How much creative input is Ronny going to have?
Steve Blaze: Well, I think Ronny is going to be pretty strongly involved in this, especially lyrically because he has a lot of lyrics. I respect his writing and his ability and his desire to get involved in it. At the same token, he understands the history of the writing and the band. With that mutual . . . we’re going to be working together a lot on different things. So, that’s going to be nice to be able to collaborate because I never really have had that to a strong degree before. I had it minimally with Ron, but not that much. I think there’s going to be more closeness between Ronny and myself than I have had with other singers in the past.
METAL EXILES: Congratulations on your induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Tell me what that means to you.
Steve Blaze: Actually that is one of the most important moments of your career, that’s definitely one of the top five, if not the top. Just the fact that we’re recognized for our longevity and the things that we’ve accomplished. It can never be taken away from us. It’s done, it’s in the history books. We’re the first hard rock band to get inducted and we’re alongside some major musical legends. It’s just kind of vindication for all of the BS that you put up with every day in this business. There’s just so many different elements of things you have to go through, people don’t realize it - emotional obstacles, physical obstacles, just to be able to continue to be a recording artist over the years. It’s an emotional roller coaster. But when something like that happens and you realize, you know what, it’s stamped in time. Not going to change, you’re there, you’ve achieved it. It’s just never, ever going to be taken away from you. It’s kind of one those things, okay, I can die now, you know. It’s a really big deal for me. There is so many people that had a big hand and part in us just being around for so many years from the managers, the crew members, to my family members and people in the business. The fans of the band had a big part in it as well. There is just so many different elements of it and you kind of feel like you just want to give everybody a copy of the award, you know.
METAL EXILES: Well, it certainly is a huge accomplishment. Let’s talk about the new record label for a second. Deep Red Shadows is the first release on Love & War Records. How did that label come about?
Steve Blaze: That came about, you know, obviously going through six labels in the past, we have been through the best and the worst of the business and major labels to independent labels and just learned so many different levels of what to do and what not to do. I was fortunate enough to get involved with an individual who had capital and was a big fan of the band that wanted to fund the new label. So we partnered with Megaforce records and we secured Sony for distribution, Sony Red to be exact, and we put the team together. We were able to employ people that had worked with us on other levels in the past and that were not only employees in the band but were kind of family and believed in us and were our friends as well. So it worked out really well to be able to employ the right people and not be subject to whoever some label said was going to be working your album for you. It was a great set up for the record. Now we just have to get out there and battle the elements of the industry, you know, how screwed up the music industry is right now.
METAL EXILES: Let me go back to NLE for a minute. Are there any plans for the future?
Steve Blaze: We have an album that’s pretty much already recorded, waiting on Rob Hovey to go in there and redo his drums. We may go in and re-record a bunch of the stuff, but we’ve got a whole bunch of really good songs that are just kind of sitting there, and we’re hoping that maybe we can do it from scratch and maybe possibly release the new album on the label maybe this year sometime.
METAL EXILES: And what does Lillian Axe have in store in the coming months?
Steve Blaze: Well, we’re going to New York this weekend to play B.B. King’s [on Monday August 9th]. It will be Ronny’s debut and we’re doing a lot of press. We’re doing Eddie Trunk’s XM Radio show and a lot of interviews, and meet the New York press and all of the people from Sony and Megaforce, all of the people that we’re working with. And then our agent is putting a tour together for September for us and, up until yesterday, we were going out with Enuff Z’Nuff and do a co-headlining tour, but our agent called and said that something happened and they had broken up yesterday. So now we’re trying to find another band to partner with. It’s crazy out there, man, I tell you. We’ve got to get out there and tour and support this record and keep pushing it and do what we need to do. In the meantime, I’ve started to write the next album. Ronny and I were discussing it last night. We’ve got lots of ideas already and we’re going to get together and start talking about those and putting some new stuff together.
METAL EXILES: When do you think you’ll start on the new album?
Steve Blaze: I would like to start on the new record maybe February or something like that. February or March. Take our time. We always seem to be under the gun. You know, we set up release dates ahead of time and then things change. We’re just always rushed. I’d like to go and start recording and then we’ll get the release date so we’re close to finishing and figure out when we’re going to have it done and not be rushed. I’m hoping that maybe we can have a release for next summer if we’re lucky.
METAL EXILES: Okay, I just have one more random question. I understand you also have a songwriting program, how are things going with that?
Steve Blaze: Well, this thing was set up because I run into a lot of people that they’re not . . ., being a songwriter is not only something I think is a born skill, but it’s also something that takes lots and lots of hard work and trial and error and it’s a growth thing. Because to be a good songwriter you also have to be proficient at some form of instrument to be able to write, understand chord changes and melodies and whatnot and have the knack to be able to write lyrics that move people, put them together, do arrangements. And these kind of things, you know, 95 percent of the people on the planet don’t have those particular skill sets. So, I started thinking about what about people that have written lyrics or just ideas for somebody they care about? Wouldn’t it be really cool if they could write a song? I want to write a song for my wife and I don’t have any musical talent, but I can write some words or I think I’m good at lyrics or I can’t write lyrics, but I can tell you about my wife and I’d like to have a song written for her. So I said I’ll come up with a program that for a fee I work with them and take their ideas. They will tell me what type of voice they want, male or female, give me some ideas of what type of instrumentation they want, what songs do you like that you would like for this to be in the same kind of feel as and I work with them. I will take their lyrics and write, arrange and record their own song that they can have to dedicate to whoever they want. And what happens is, not only do we do that, but they have half ownership of the song with me and half the publishing if it ever gets published by an act and makes some money, we split it 50-50. So they have ownership of the song that belongs to them and it’s written and dedicated for a loved one. So that’s the whole idea behind it.
If you’ve never seen Lillian Axe live, do yourself a favor and be sure to check them out on their upcoming tour.
www.lillianaxe.com
http://www.loveandwarrecordsllc.com
http://www.createyoursongwithsteveblaze.com
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